Apeiron Labs raises $9.5M to build autonomous underwater drones for ocean exploration
By California-based startup Apeiron Labs, founded by the former CTO of the CIA’s In-Q-Tel venture arm, has closed a $9.5 million Series A funding round. The investment will fuel mass production of compact autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed to drastically cut the cost of collecting oceanographic data. Leading the round were Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management, Planetary Health, and S2G Ventures, with participation from Assembly Ventures, Bay Bridge Ventures, and TFX Capital.
The company tackles a major scientific challenge: about 95% of the ocean remains unexplored because traditional methods are prohibitively expensive. Research vessels cost roughly $100,000 per day, move slowly, and collect data only in limited spots, while satellites can only provide information about the ocean surface.
Apeiron’s devices are roughly 90 cm long, 12.7 cm in diameter, and weigh under 10 kg, allowing them to be launched from small vessels or even aircraft. Their design is compatible with standard U.S. Navy launch systems. Once deployed, the drones dive to depths of up to 400 meters, measuring temperature, salinity, and acoustic parameters before resurfacing to transmit data via satellite to a cloud-based operating system. Real-time algorithms adjust their trajectories using updated ocean current models.
The key innovation is a network-centric approach. Dozens or even hundreds of these AUVs spread out 10 to 20 km apart create a dynamic sensor network capable of monitoring an area of thousands of square kilometers in real time. According to Apeiron’s CEO Pappu, this has already brought down the cost of oceanographic data collection by 100 times, with plans to slash costs by 1,000 times by 2027.
The technology has broad civilian and military applications: hurricane forecasting-since ocean temperature profiles are critical-optimizing offshore wind farm operations, tracking fish migration to support sustainable fisheries, underwater object detection for the Navy, and monitoring climate change impacts. Apeiron is already supplying devices to government and private customers, but the new funding will scale production and deploy the first large sensor arrays in the Atlantic and Pacific later this year. Long term, the company envisions making continuous deep ocean monitoring as routine as satellite imaging.
